1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a rail mounting assembly such as can be used for supporting storage containers or bins. More particularly, the rail mounting assembly is made up of horizontal rails held on a plurality of fixed uprights by adjustable locking brackets constructed for fractional spacing vertically. The horizontal rails are provided with suitable flanges for engaging hooks on the storage containers, or for resting of the lower portion of storage containers thereon. Holes and slots are provided at fastening points along the rail to accommodate the adjustable locking bracket, which then passes through slots on the upright support post to provide two downward bearing points in support of the rail upon the upright support post.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A suspension framework for support of storage bins with rearwardly extending hooks punched out from horizontal suspension rails is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,067,882, issued Dec. 11, 1972 to Ribbens et al. Dethardt et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,033,378, issued May 8, 1962, shows a collapsible file holder and teaches welding, bolting or otherwise securing horizontal rails to upright posts. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,726,411, issued Apr. 10, 1973 to Jones, a shelf mountable container assembly is provided where a fixed mounting flange engages a hook on the container. A safety hook for assembly of rails and supporting poles to form a rack is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,490,604, issued Jan. 20, 1970 to Klein, and another connecting hook is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,637,086, issued Jan. 25, 1972 to Klein. U.S. Pat. No. 2,778,505, issued Jan. 22, 1957 to Levitt et al, discloses a shelf supporting bracket to hook into two slots of a pillar. U.S. Pat. No. 3,352,584, issued Nov. 14, 1967 to Engel and U.S. Pat. No. 3,627,247, issued Dec. 14, 1971 to Krikorian, show brackets for holding bins or pallet racks to slotted upright posts.
Other patents disclosing various other means for supporting shelving rack assemblies are the following:
______________________________________ 2,895,619 Frazier July 21, 1959 2,974,807 Furrer March 14, 1961 3,031,088 Ribbens et al April 24, 1962 3,291,319 Novales et al December 13, 1966 ______________________________________
None of the prior art patents discloses a means for fractional spacing between upright support post slots, and none of the patents disclosed has a locking bracket with three projections or hooks for engagement of a support post by a horizontal rail. Consequently, all prior art devices suffer the drawback of requiring lifting of the rail the full space between slots in a mounting upright post for vertical adjustment of position. Moreover, attainment of fractional spacing with prior art hooks has required maintenance of a sizable inventory of various styles of hooking combinations. Other prior art rails have a fixed hook to mount through holes in the uprights, such fixed hooks tending to be easily bent in shipping and being less compact in shipping size due to the fact that such fixed hooks do not intermember easily. Furthermore, prior art rails fail to provide a reinforced top flange and therefore suffered from deformability on application of loads such as by resting thereon of storage containers or bins containing heavy loads such as metal parts, pipe fittings, or the like.